Josie’s Story – Introducing Art On The Go!

A few years ago Fred purchased a Roadtrek RV with money from an inheritance he received from his mother. He named his new Roadtrek Josephine, in memory of his mother. After a few years of traveling all over the country, Fred decided to sell Josephine and spend time with his new grandchild.

This is Josie on her maiden voyage with us. Larger than our old VW van, but still limited in space for art supplies.

Around Mother’s Day, my partner, Paul, decided to purchase Fred’s Roadtrek with money Paul from an inheritance he received from his mother. We flew to Arizona and Paul bought Josephine, who with Fred’s permission, is now called Josie.

Although the actual sale occurred 4 days after Mother’s Day, we have decided to celebrate every Mother’s Day by taking Josie someplace special in memory of both Fred’s and Paul’s mothers.

Josie is only 19’ long, so she can fit in downtown parking spaces. I confirmed this when I met my sister-in-law and niece for pizza in Redlands, California on my trip back to Oregon from southern Arizona where Paul purchased Josie. Luckily there was diagonal parking in Redlands, so I didn’t have to try my hand at parallel parking. I’m not quite ready for that yet.

Josie is definitely larger than our old 1987 VW camper, but there’s still only so much room available for things like art supplies. I have one cabinet in Josie dedicated to art supplies. Unfortunately, I only get half of that cabinet because Paul seems to think he should get some space for his art supplies too. Since he’s the one who purchased Josie, I’ve decided to relent and give him some of the space.

This past week we spent 3 days learning a few of the intricacies of how use an RV. We feel we’ve barely scratched the surface. We have figured out the basics, like the refrigerator, stove, water and sewer. We’re still struggling with some of the electric. And we made numerous trips home to get things we forgot or didn’t know we needed. Luckily we were smart enough to camp only a few miles from home.

Our first visitor while camping, Sammy the Snake.

Now for the art part of this story, which starts with space constraints. It’s really, really hard not to have my entire studio at my fingertips. It means I have to plan ahead before we head out on a trip. I have a spontaneous nature, so this is a bit difficult for me. I figure others may suffer from the same condition, so I’ve decided to add a new category to my blog posts called Art On The Go!

Paul, working on his jewelry in the shade of Josie’s awning.

It is under this new category that I will talk about the art I do while traveling as well as tools and materials I use while traveling. I’ll try new things and tell you what works for me and what doesn’t. I want to encourage others to chime in with suggestions.

I have found that for me, it takes a lot of planning ahead of time for me to be able to do art while traveling. So, I’m going to try and figure out how to plan ahead in a way that’s relatively easy to set up. I have some ideas, not to see if they work in the real world.

Oh, the fun you’re going to have! We travel in an SUV outfitted for extreme off-roading. I’m still working out my travel art supply arrangements. It all fits in a repurposed camera bag at the moment. Amazing what I can get in there! Watercolors, acrylic paints, journals, collage papers, glues, gesso, paintbrushes, colored pencils–both regular and water, …My main problem is getting my man to stay in one place long enough to get anything done! He’s always on the move.

Oh, Elizabeth, it’s amazing that you can get so much into a camera bag. I’m impressed! I’m lucky that my man is usually willing to go at whatever pace I am in the mood for. My main problem is that many time I want to do art on the spur of the moment. Now I’m going to have to get my supplies figured out in advance. And for me, that means what project(s) am I going to want to be working on prior to the trip. Then I’ve got to cut get all the supplies together before we leave.

I find art on the go liberating too: I have to work with what I have, which leads to creative problem solving. I once weighted drying books with bottled water on a room service tray. It’s a good thing!

Hi Candy… Welcome to RV fun. I too have to make art when we travel. Space is a major concern when packing so at home I have several bags that hold different projects for travel. One has my weaving materials, another carries my pine needle basket supplies, some bags have whatever journal I am making, and then I have a bag that has supplies for card making etc…… Before my trip I decide which bag I will take and then add the necessary tools to complete the project. For instance in Florida I took my weaving bag (plane friendly) made 8 miniature various weavings and incorporated shells I found on the beach into them. When I got home I put them in a box and now when I get inspired I will take one out and design a finished framed art piece to include it. I find my focus is better and very productive if I stick to one type of project with the materials I have on hand.
My absolute MUST in the trailer is my metal TV tray. It is light, easy to store,carry and set up and voila instant art table to put by the river or fire or shade tree. I am anxious to read about your Adventures with Josie.
Have fun lady!!! Cynthia

Cynthia, it sounds like you really have this well organized. I’m impressed. We just bought 2 backpacking chairs and table. Super lightweight and they take up very little space. The addition of a TV tray sounds great. We’ll probably start with short trips close to home. I’m thinking of the mountain lakes. I need to figure out what we need to be comfortable and what we can live without. Thanks for your ideas.

This sounds like a great adventure. Some of my most productive time was when I planned to do all my handwork on the fabric pieces on the road. Easy to take, and I enjoyed the inspiration around me. Someone recently told me to look each day to your surrnoundings for color, design or spatial concepts and record the idea – either mentally, by taking a photo or in a journal. These ideas have been very useful to me as I am on the road a lot now and tend to appreciate the change in my environment more.

I love the idea of looking at your surroundings. We got the Roadtrek in Arizona. And driving through Arizona was amazing. Unfortunately I was in a rush to get home, so I didn’t stop to photograph or sketch. Now I’m trying to remember what I saw. I wish I had at least taken some photos. I won’t make that mistake again.

You’re welcome to follow along with us. I have enjoyed your journeys too. So much to see, so much to experience. I hope to have much of my adventure transformed into art in some way. It’s going to be fun to see how it unfolds.